- Letters: M/ACIORT
- Words: 53
- Points: 221
- Pangrams: 1
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The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it.
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| root # | answers covered | answer's first two letters | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | AM | 4 | A supply of bullets, slang abbreviation |
| 2 | 1 | AR | 5 | Protective covering against weapons (suit of …) |
| 3 | 1 | AR | 5 | Pleasant smell (baking bread, e.g.) |
| 3 | 1 | AR | 8 | Pleasant smell (baking bread, e.g.) |
| 4 | 1 | AT | 4 | Smallest unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb) |
| 4 | 1 | AT | 6 | Smallest unit of matter, “… Ant” superhero, noun/adjective (… bomb) |
| 5 | 1 | CA | 4 | ♀ sleeveless undergarment top, slang abbr. |
| 6 | 1 | CA | 4 | Clothing that helps you hide, slang abbr. |
| 7 | 1 | CA | 5 | Bounce off or glance off an object or cushion |
| 9 | 1 | CO | 4 | Prolonged unconscious state |
| 10 | 1 | CO | 5 | Paid jokester, or “… book” with superheroes |
| 11 | 1 | CO | 5 | Curly punctuation mark that separates phrases |
| 12 | 1 | CO | 6 | Perpetrate, pledge, or put into a mental ward |
| 8 | 1 | CO | 8 | Where you check your outerwear (compound) |
| 13 | 1 | CR | 4 | Study intensely just before a test (stuff facts into your brain), or stuff into a box; verb |
| 14 | 1 | IM | 4 | Prayer leader at mosque |
| 15 | 1 | IM | 8 | Copy someone’s speech or mannerisms |
| 17 | 1 | MA | 4 | Permanently injure |
| 18 | 1 | MA | 4 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 20 | 1 | MA | 4 | Old-timey schoolteacher honorific |
| 22 | 1 | MA | 4 | Store (K–, Wal–) |
| 16 | 1 | MA | 5 | Opposite of micro |
| 18 | 1 | MA | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 19 | 1 | MA | 6 | Rattle shaken in music |
| 21 | 1 | MA | 6 | Fat squirrel that hibernates; starts with above |
| 23 | 1 | MI | 4 | Flaky rock that breaks off in sheets |
| 27 | 1 | MI | 4 | Catcher’s glove, or Sen. Romney |
| 24 | 1 | MI | 5 | Prefix meaning small (-scope, -phone) |
| 25 | 1 | MI | 5 | Parrot someone’s speaking & mannerisms, verb; or the person doing it, noun |
| 26 | 1 | MI | 6 | Looking glass (“Who’s the fairest of them all?”) |
| 28 | 1 | MO | 4 | Water ditch surrounding a castle |
| 29 | 1 | MO | 4 | Othello (“The …”), noun; or to tie up a boat, verb |
| 30 | 1 | MO | 4 | Irrelevant, in law (it’s a … point) |
| 18 | 1 | MO | 5 | ♀ parent, slang |
| 34 | 1 | MO | 5 | Device (electric or gasoline) that produces movement (in a car, e.g.) |
| 36 | 1 | MO | 5 | Short phrase encapsulating beliefs of an institution (Marines’ “Semper Fi”) |
| 33 | 1 | MO | 6 | Paste for bricks, cup for grinding (…& pestle), or gun for lobbing shells |
| 32 | 1 | MO | 7 | Casablanca’s country |
| 35 | 1 | MO | 8 | Dated synonym for automobile |
| 31 | 1 | MO | 9 | Temporary prohibition of an activity (… on evictions because of COVID) |
| 37 | 1 | OM | 4 | Leave out, verb |
| 38 | 1 | RO | 4 | Wander, or use your phone on another network |
| 40 | 1 | RO | 4 | Chamber of a house (kitchen, bed-…, bath-…), noun/verb |
| 39 | 1 | RO | 6 | Amorous & funny film genre, slang abbr. |
| 41 | 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese rich, naturally fermented soy sauce |
| 42 | 1 | TA | 6 | Airport runway area |
| 43 | 1 | TA | 6 | Japanese & dojo floor mats (畳) |
| 44 | 1 | TO | 6 | Ketchup & ragù fruit |
| 45 | 1 | TO | 6 | ♂ feline, compound that starts with a ♂ name (Selleck, Petty, e.g.) |
| 46 | 1 | TO | 6 | New Zealand small bird (Magnum, P.I star 1st name + breast, slang) |
| 47 | 1 | TR | 4 | People mover in Disney parks, parking lots, & cities |
| 49 | 1 | TR | 4 | Neaten (hair) by snipping off ends |
| 48 | 1 | TR | 7 | Single unit of a public transit vehicle, compound noun |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It exists to make it easier for Kevin Davis to take a day off. Most of the clues come from him. There may be some startup problems, but long term I think I can put the clues together with no more than half an hour's work.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. This is similar to what Kevin Davis does, but without information about parts of speech As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout
Many thanks to Kevin Davis, whose 4,500-word clue list made this possible.